Lynn Barber, the illustrious interviewer known as the demon barber of Fleet
Street, could have ended up in jail if she had followed advice of her
careers adviser, she revealed in a speech at the Bloomsbury Institute. “At
school, I was told there are some interesting openings in the prison
service,” she said. Luckily for the lags, she chose Penthouse
magazine instead. Barber once applied to be a BBC trainee and was offered a
secretarial job instead, but she reckons being a woman has helped her. “If a
man asked the questions I’ve asked, you’d